The first edition of this book achieved considerable success due to its ease of use and practical approach, and to the clear writing style of the authors. The preparation of organic compounds is still central to many disciplines, from the most applied to the highly academic and, more tan ever is not limited to chemists. With an emphasis on the most up-to-date techniques commonly used in organic syntheses, this book draws on the extensive experience of the authors and their association with some of the world's mleading laboratories of synthetic organic chemistry. In this new edition, all the figures have been re-drawn to bring them up to the highest possible standard, and the text has been revised to bring it up to date.
Written primarily for postgraduate, advanced undergraduate and industrial organic chemists, particularly those involved in pharmaceutical, agrochemical and other areas of fine chemical research, the book is also a source of reference for biochemists, biologists, genetic engineers, material scientists and polymer researchers.
John Leonard grew up in Washington, D.C., Jackson Heights, Queens, and Long Beach, California, where he graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School. Raised by a single mother, Ruth Smith, he made his way to Harvard University, where he immersed himself in the school newspaper, The Harvard Crimson, only to drop out in the spring of his sophomore year. He then attended the University of California at Berkeley.
Leonard was a voracious critical omnivore, writing on culture, politics, television, books and the media in many other venues, including The Nation, The New York Review of Books, Harper's, The Los Angeles Times Book Review, American Heritage and Salon.com. Leonard taught creative writing and criticism at the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University.
Leonard wrote extensively about television in his career – for Life and The New York Times, both under the pen name Cyclops, for New York Magazine from 1984 to 2008, and in his 1997 book Smoke and Mirrors. In addition, he authored four novels and five collections of essays.
Leonard was co-literary editor of The Nation with his wife, Sue Leonard, from 1995 to 1998, and continued as a contributing editor for the magazine. He wrote a monthly column on new books for Harper's magazine and was a frequent contributor to the New York Times Book Review and The New York Review of Books. Leonard rated highest among literary critics in a 2006 Time Out New York survey of writers and publishers. He received the National Book Critics Circle’s Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006.